Everyone’s got an Opinion[ista] about anonymous bloggers
Drama! Intrigue! Scoopage! Another anonymous blogger has been unmasked! Except this time, the anona-blogger has unmasked herself — and apparently that’s a big deal.
The anonymous lawyer-blogger Opinionista, who has blogged about life inside the white-shoe Manhattan law firm for the past ten months (very accurately, as this lawyer-cum-blogger can attest), came out today in the Observer as Melissa Lafsky, late of the law firm Littler Mendelson. She was, however, outed yesterday by Gawker, who saw her own self-post announcing her outing and snagged the scoop, even as they wondered “when did de-anonymizing bloggers become such a THING?”
Well, TMFTML’s modest reveal notwithstanding, it IS a thing, as Nadine Haobsh (aka Jolie in NYC) and David Lat (aka subject of a New Yorker article) can attest. Gawker certainly plays no small role in the making of such a “thing” (as their rush to the scoop indicates). It’s strange, though, that they would be so disparaging of Lafsky’s handling of her own reveal, finding it “ridiculously amusing” that her outing was to be “orchestrated as a formal unveiling in the Observer.” What’s so hard to understand about someone wanting to control how their identity is revealed? I bet Nadine Haobsh would have wanted things to unfold differently (though she certainly landed on her feet). What is the alternative, trusting a gossip website to give you a fair shake? It’s hardly Gawker’s mandate to take care with people’s reputations (nor is that its job); but the way I see it Lafsky could have been helpless and passive about her future or, as the Observer specifies, she could sign with an ace agent, work on her book, prep her blog for a more professional, polished relaunch, and prudently leave her legal job. I don’t know; to me that just seems smart.
What’s also smart: the fact that Lafsky recognizes that, let’s face it, being a good writer isn’t the story right now. It is, however, the reason she’ll stay the story (and the reason that she has aforementioned literary agent, who may love bloggers but probably loves talent more).
Upshot: Girl can write, and she’s doing it on her terms. I see nothing wrong with that.
Lafsky’s Last Laugh: Secret Legal Blogger Says ‘I’m Opinionista! [NYO]
Blogging The Firm [NYT]
Opinionista [Opinionistas]
Disclaimer: I know and like Opinionista and her writing, I know and like Kate Lee and certain of her clients. I don’t know David Lat, but I’m still not convinced that he wasn’t inspired by Shakira. Update: Not only do I know and like TMFTML, but I’d read any book he wrote, even if it had a pretty pink cover and they called it chick lit.
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